Palm Signs Perpetual License for Palm OS Garnet Source Code

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Palm has signed an agreement with ACCESS Systems Americas to license the source code for Palm OS Garnet, the version of the Palm OS used in several Treo smartphone models and all Palm handheld computers. Under the agreement, Palm has a perpetual license to use as well as to innovate on the Palm OS Garnet code base. The new agreement also provides Palm flexibility to use Palm OS Garnet in whole or in part in any Palm product, and together with any other system technologies. The company plans to ensure that applications now compatible with Palm OS Garnet will operate with little or no modification in future Palm products that employ Palm OS Garnet as the company evolves it over time to support Palm's product differentiation strategy.

In addition, Palm has secured an expansion of its existing patent license from ACCESS to cover all current and future Palm products, regardless of the underlying operating system. For all of these rights, Palm will pay ACCESS a total of $44 million, which will be paid in Palm's third quarter of fiscal year 2007, and will be recognized as an expense over the next several years. This single payment eliminates the requirement for Palm to pay ACCESS continuing royalties of 10s of millions of dollars over the coming years.

Just as it will continue to enhance Palm OS, Palm will continue to support and further innovate on its implementation of Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition, which it licenses from Microsoft. By supporting both operating systems, Palm gives its customers – from carriers and enterprises to consumers and small businesses – a choice of operating environment.

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